Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Katsuyori Shibata beat Matt Riddle with a choke. This was fine but nowhere near the MOTY many people are making it out to be. No disrespect to the UK fans but they are passionate about hyping matches up they like and usually, the hype doesn't match the quality. This match was basically built around no selling. Shibata sold very little of Riddle's offense which ruined the match. Having just reviewed Goto/Shibata a few weeks ago, I didn't think this was anywhere near that and it was just a long squash. Shibata and Goto can no sell some and get away with it, but in the end, both are going to nail each other so hard and go on for long enough that you will buy into it, while this didn't really go to that length to get there. Shibata just never really sold and never got me to the point where I thought "Riddle has got this". Easy night for Shibata and Riddle does have some of the traits to being a star with looks, charisma and legitimacy but he has to work on his striking first.